Money Q&A with Guy Fieri

California food dude Guy Fieri's platinum blond spikes, radical shades and totally insane enthusiasm for feel-good grub transformed him from humble Santa Rosa restaurateur to America's most-recognizable rock star chef.Since busting onto the Food Network lineup in 2006 with "Guy's Big Bite," the irrepressible co-owner of the Johnny Garlic's and Tex Wasabi's restaurant brands has taken our taste buds on an all-American road trip with "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," which spawned two best-selling "Triple D" cookbooks. With his new gig as host of NBC's "Minute to Win It" and a new cookbook, "Guy Fieri Food," a compilation of 125 of his favorite recipes, Fieri's career is definitely on cruise control.

Guy Fieri

You've mentioned your childhood in Ferndale, Calif., where you sold soft pretzels at the age of 10 from a cart. Was that your first job?

Naw, I had a bunch of jobs as a kid. I was a very business-driven person. When I was 6, I walked down to Smith and Scalvini appliance store and got a refrigerator box from them, dragged it back to the little courtyard next to my mom and dad's leather shop and cut a window in the box. I colored it with my crayons and taped a stick so it would stay up like a little counter. I got 25 cents from my dad and went across the street to the candy store and bought all the penny candy I could, and I set it up there on my little counter and sold candy to the tourists. I didn't know why I was selling it or why they would buy it from me, but here was this little kid standing in this cardboard box selling candy. I remember Trudy, the lady who owned the candy store, looking across the street at me selling candy.

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